DETAILED ACTION
Notice of AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Drawings
Figures 1 and 4 should be designated by a legend such as --Prior Art-- because only that which is old is illustrated as evidenced at least at Paragraph [0025] for Figure 1 and Paragraph [0028] for Figure 4. See MPEP § 608.02(g). Corrected drawings in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. The replacement sheet(s) should be labeled “Replacement Sheet” in the page header (as per 37 CFR 1.84(c)) so as not to obstruct any portion of the drawing figures. If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
At Line 2 of Paragraph [0065], the recitation “metal landing hole” requires a change to - - metal lapping hole - - to correct an essentially typographical error.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claim 40 is objected to because of the following informalities:
At Line 14 of Claim 40, the recitation “the orthographic projection of the at least two protective layers” requires a change to - - the orthographic projections of the at least two protective layers - - to correct an essentially typographical error.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 27 and 36 – 38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 27 recites the limitation "the second protective layer" at Line 3 where antecedent basis is not clear because - - a second protective layer - - has been introduced at Line 2 of Claim 27 and at Line 2 of Claim 24 and it is not known as to which that “the second protective layer” properly refers back to.
Claim 36 recites the limitation "the first metal lapping electrode" at Line 6 where said recitation lacks antecedent basis because no - - first metal lapping electrode - - has been introduced in Claims 36 or 21. Note that Claim 38 falls rejected with Claim 36 at least due to dependency.
Claim 37 recites the limitations "the first metal lapping electrode" at Line 3 - 5 where said recitations lack antecedent basis because no - - first metal lapping electrode - - has been introduced in Claims 37, 36, or 21.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 21 and 39 – 40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Guo et al. (China Patent Document CN 111668279A, please see original document provided for Figure references and English translation provided for Page and Line references), hereinafter referenced as Guo.
Regarding Claim 21, Guo discloses “A touch-control display panel, comprising a display region and a peripheral region surrounding the display region” (Figure 1, Item 000, and Page 4, Lines 12 – 28 (Notice the Figure 1 shows a display panel 000 with display region AA and peripheral region NA surround the display region NA.)), “wherein the peripheral region comprises a first frame region at one side of the display region, the first frame region comprises a bonding region and a transition region between the bonding region and the display region” (Figure 1, Items NA and BA (Notice that Figure 1 shows a peripheral region NA comprising a first frame region to the bottom of the display region AA, where the frame region comprises a bonding region BA and a transition regional of NA between bonding region BA and display region AA.)), “the touch-control display panel comprises: a substrate” (Figure 1, Item 10 ‘substrate, and Page 4, Line 18), “a display structure layer, arranged on the substrate and located in the display region” (Figures 1 and 2, Page 3, Lines 17 – 19, and Page 5, Lines 1 – 2 (Notice that Figure 2 shows further detail of Figure 1, where a display structure layer 70 is in display region AA and arranged on substrate 10.)), “an encapsulating layer, on one side of the display structure layer away from the substrate, wherein at least a part of the encapsulating layer is located in the display region” (Figures 1 and 2, and Page 4, Lines 22 (Notice in Figure 2 that packaging layer 30 provided an encapsulating layer that is on a side of display structure layer 70 that is away from substrate 10 and at least a portion of encapsulating layer 30 is in display region AA.)), “an optical adjusting structure, on one side of the encapsulating layer away from the substrate” (Figures 1 and 2, Items 40 and 401, Page 4, Lines 23 - 24 (Notice that the unlabeled insulting layer under metal layer 401 optically adjusts light emitted from display structure layer 70 and is provided on one side of the encapsulating layer 30 that is away from the substrate 10.)), “a metal lapping hole, disposed on the substrate and located in the bonding region” (Figure 2 (Notice that a metal lapping hole exists where the rightmost dashed line of Figure 2 cuts through metal layer 401 that is deposited on a layer of array layer 20 in said hole above substrate 10.)), “at least two protective layers, on one side of the optical adjusting structure away from the substrate” (Figure 2 (Notice that the topmost and bottom most layer of packaging layer 30 provide protective layers that are on a side of the above described optical adjusting structure that is far away from substrate 10.)), “wherein orthographic projections of the at least two protective layers on the substrate cover the display region and at least cover a part of the first frame region” (Figure 2 (Notice that orthographic projections of the two protective layer described above onto substrate 10 cover the display region AA and least part of the first frame region NA.)), “the orthographic projections of the at least two protective layers on the substrate and an
orthographic projection of the metal lapping hole on the substrate do not overlap” (Figure 2 (Notice that the orthographic projections of the two protective layers described above stop to the left of the above described lapping hole and do not overlap with the orthographic projection of the above described lapping hole.)), “and a distance between boundaries of the orthographic projections of the at least two protective layers in the first frame region is greater than or equal to a preset distance” (Figure 2 (Notice the slanted ends of the above described protective layer at the above described lapping hole, which places the boundaries of the orthographic projections of the above described two protective layer at a least a preset distance.)), “and a touch-control structure layer, on one side of the at least two protective layers away from the substrate” (Figure 2, Item 40, and Page 4, Line 23 (Notice that touch layer 40 is provided on one side of the above described two protective layers that is away from substrate 10.)), “wherein the touch-control structure layer comprises a touch-control electrode lead, and at least a part of the touch-control electrode lead covers the metal lapping hole” (Figure 2, Item 4011, and Page 4, Line 25 (Notice that signal line/lead 4011 from touch layer 40 covers the metal lapping hole described above.))
Regarding Claim 39, Guo discloses everything claimed as applied above (See Claim 21). Specifically, refer back to the rejection of Claim 21 and notice that the display panel of Guo provides a “display device”.
Regarding Claim 40, Guo discloses everything claimed as applied above (See Claim 21). Specifically, refer back to the rejection of Claim 21 and notice that the display panel of Guo is an article of manufacture where the structures of Claim 40 are provided and/or manufactured to arrive at the article of manufacture of Figures 1 and 2.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 22 – 26 and 28 - 35 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
In the prior art of record, it has been shown to provide for the limitations of Claim 21 from which Claims 22 – 26 and 28 – 35 are dependent. However, it has not been shown in the prior art of record to provide for the limitations of Claims 22 – 26 and 28 – 35 in combination with those of Claim 21 through each of Claims 22 – 26 and 28 – 35 independent chains of dependency.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN M BUTCHER whose telephone number is (571)270-5575. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday – Friday from 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Ke Xiao, can be reached at (571) 272 - 7776. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRIAN M BUTCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2627 March 19, 2026